Cosmic coincidence: Blake’s first game back for Ducks against Sharks, more on 0-3 record and insights offered

ANAHEIM — Small world department: Ducks left wing Jason Blake will play tonight for the first time since Sharks defenseman Brent Burns accidentally skated over his arm in the second game of the season.

“You look back three months ago and this was the team it happened against,” Blake said. “It’s kind of ironic.”

The freak injury occurred off a faceoff as both players were pursuing the puck and Blake fell to the ice just as Burns arrived on the scene. Tendons in Blake’s left forearm were damaged.

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Burns reached Blake after the game, just as the Ducks veteran was being taken to the hospital, something that Blake said later was appreciated. At no point has Burns been faulted for his role in the accident.

“Stuff happens in hockey,” Blake said today. “You hate to see it happen, but I haven’t even thought about that, about Brent at all. I have the utmost respect for him even before this happened.”

Burns said, yes, he was glad to hear that Blake was going to be back in action.

“Yeah, it’s good. You feel bad when stuff happens like that,” the Sharks defenseman said. “Glad he came back. I know he’s been through a lot. And obviously when a guy’s been through a lot like that, there’s something special about him that gets him through things because mentally it can be hard. It’s good to see.”

The two have not been in contact since shortly after the injury, and Burns said he didn’t plan to text Blake this afternoon.

“No, he doesn’t want to hear from me before a game either,” Burns said.

What about on the ice, will he say something then?

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Burns said, “if I see him.”

*****Both coaches offered their assessment of why the struggling Ducks are a perfect 3-0 against the Sharks.

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“Our work ethic against them was great,” said Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau, who was only on hand for his team’s 3-2 victory on Dec. 26. “Worked hard for 60 minutes and then we had a solid goaltending game.

“You add that,” he continued, “and the fact we got the lead and never relinquished the lead. When you don’t relinquish the lead when you’re mentally fragile, that’s a real big thing.”

Todd McLellan looked a little closer at the three games, a 1-0 shutout in that second game of the season and two 3-2 losses.

“They’ve been able to get to three and we haven’t,” McLellan said, repeating his familiar theme that NHL games these days are a race to three.

Then he continued:

“Their goaltender’s been the first star in all three matches and he seems to elevate his game against us. We’ll have to find a way to crack that nut is basically what it comes down to.

“Also, when you look at the games and the opportunities we’ve given them, there haven’t been many, but we’ve erred ugly – I think of Bobby Ryan’s goal (off a Joe Thornton turnover), I think of the only goal in this building off an offensive zone faceoff and missed coverage. Penalty-wise in Game 2 we break a stick on a 5-on-3 kill and it’s almost a lay-up for them. We have to manage ourselves on the defensive side of the puck better as well.”

Thornton cited the timing of two of the defeats — one after a six-day break in the schedule after the season opener, the other after the two-day Christmas break.

*****The Sharks will once again be facing Jonas Hiller in the net and Antti Niemi is getting his 17th start in the last 18 games with Thomas Greiss once again the back-up as Antero Niittymaki hasn’t even made it into that role yet.

*****I had a question to ask Boudreau that related to his time with the Washington Capitals, and when I prefaced it by saying the Sharks would be meeting the Capitals later this week, he interrupted me before I could even ask it.

“Tell Todd to give me a call . . . after the game,” said Boudreau, a former roommate of McLellan’s in their minor league playing days.

I passed that along to McLellan who took it under advisement.

*****Do not be surprised if right wing Tommy Wingels gets a call-up from Worcester soon. After strong pre-season, then slow start in San Jose, he’s been racking up points and honors in the AHL and with Havlat out of the lineup, could get another shot with San Jose in near future.

What that means for Benn Ferriero, of course, remains to be seen, but this opportunistic goal against Vancouver on Monday night couldn’t hurt his cause, right?

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

I hear a lot of references to the Sharks “win” over the Canucks on Monday. I understand that the players must get an emotional high from winning a shootout, but do coaches consider shootouts as wins/losses when evaluating their team or certain match-ups, or is that still a tie in their book?

g-bum-man

Pluck a Duck! Go Sharks!

capnblinky

the todd recognizes thornton’s brutal turnover and thornton talks about breaks in the schedule. shocking.

B

I dont like the Ducks… but I like the Sharks!!! GOOOO SHAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRKSSSSSSS!!!!!!! Grrrrrrrr arrrrrrrrr ghgghghg!!!!!!

Geri(h)atric

“Their goaltender’s been the first star in all three matches and he seems to elevate his game against us.”

I respectfully disagree with the coach.

I think the Sharks’ knack for taking a lot of low-quality shots means the goalie looks better than he is. If opposing goalies always look good against your team, then either:

A) You have an incredible knack for running into “hot” goalies; or
B) Your team does something that makes opposing goalies look good.

Occam’s Razor, anyone?

Mike

From what I’ve read Meetyourmako, T-Mac doesn’t necessarily believe in the shoot out. Of course they’ll take the extra point, but it isn’t really the way to end the game… more for the fans.

homer

Enough of the “we played crappy because we had a few days off prior to the game” excuse. It’s almost as bad as “we played crappy because of back-to-back games”.

I know it’s unfair that only the Sharks had a Christamas break, but suck it up and play hard.

meetyourmako

It just seems like a lot of “Hooray! We finally beat these guys!,” but over the past two regular seasons we’ve won 2 in the shootout and lost 4 skating. To me that looks like an 0-4-3 record.

meetyourmako

0-4-3 vs. the Canucks, that is.

ZEKE

I’m buying what you’re selling there Geri @6. Sometimes you need to change up on a goalie.

ZEKE

As for Burns, he’s still the guy that keeps both team in the game. His puck handling down low on offense led to a fast break goal for the Canucks.

On Niemi — he’s getting plenty of time off between games — and he’s playing almost every game. I guess when our schedule gets densely packed in the near future, Niemi is going to sit a bunch of them. Just looking at his history, he does like playing often — but fades when he gets a bit past the 50 game mark. Hate to overuse him now when he’ll need to get into that groove later on.

SactoShark

Here is an email I got from CSN:

The entire Sharks game with pre and post shows will be on tonight on Direct TV channel 698 regardless of how it appears. We are working with Direct TV and Tribune Media who composes their listings to have these issues corrected ASAP.

and…

TV info: The Sharks will be on CSNPlus on cable ONLY in Kings territory. For DishDirect, AT&T and all other cable it wil be on CSNCalifornia.

Long Time No Cup

Griping about shoot-out wins is like whining about the gold standard: go ahead if your psyche requires it but it makes you sound like a crank.

SactoShark

Colin White is on IR?

NB Finfan

Back to previous thread and the “Legened”…

I compare the “Legend” to a young pitcher who can throw 98 MPH fastball but cannot find the strike zone. You are in love with that speed so you hold onto him hoping one day he can throw strikes.

Beer League Rocks

From last thread, I have an email address for dish network to complain about lack of current info on program guide. I mean come on man, I now know the game will be on the regular channel, because SactoShark got the info from someone at comcrap, so thanks again Sacto.president@dishnetwork.com
maybe if we flood them with enough email they will get their act together, but don’t hold your breath

SanJoseCupCrazy

I’m going to go way out of bounds here and actually acknowledge something MLBPMS noted in a comment a day or two ago:

Thornton’s excuses pertaining to the schedule are getting tiresome. One game after a six game break, another right after Christmas, another on Armistice Day, another after 2 straight months without rain, another on Andrew Dejardains bobblehead night….. ENOUGH.

Joe, hate to tell you: Christmas came for Anaheim on the same day that it did for the Sharks….. and they were on the road.

Snow Shovel

Beer League – If you can’t set your DVR ahead of time, do you have a trustworthy soul at home who can do it for you at game time?

meetyourmako

@LongTimeNoCup When they start using the shootout in the playoffs, I will look at those two shootout wins with confidence. Until then, I’m happy to have the 5 extra points from SO wins this year, but I want to know that we can actually beat the Canucks come the playoffs.

You know what makes you sound like a crank? Trying to explain the NHL’s point and tie-breaker system to someone uninitiated.

g-bum-man

SanJoseCupCrazy—I think that is Jumbo’s way of “forgetting”about the loss–he minimizes it by making an excuse. Sorta like a cornerback in the NFL–need to have a short memory or they go insane thinking about the times they were burned for a touchdown.

Wait a second…did I just make an excuse for Jumbo’s excuse? WTF!! I am not a big fan of it either. I prefer Boyle’s method—straight up honesty and taking personal responsibility for results.

However, Jumbo is the Captain, and I think he talks the party line because of that. Doesn’t get on any player in public, or with the media (which I respect). We do not know what happens behind the closed doors of the locker room. I suspect it is a bit different–with less excuses.

SactoShark

I remember in the Olympics when Team USA was playing Switzerland, Ryan was telling everyone on the bench to run interference and get as physical with Hiller as possible as that what puts him off his game.

Might be one idea to make sure Hiller does not come up as first star every game…it Was his own teammate who said it

Given Perry’s history, be nice to see the Sharks show some of that same grit tonight …and just tougher all the way around.

Maybe Jumbo can try his finger trick with Getzlaf to get things started

Beer League Rocks

Snow Shovel- auto timer set for game. Just needed to know what channel to set. My dog, maybe, but some say animals don’t have souls( I don’t believe them). He is very trustworthy, but likes to watch other stuff. I never let him have the remote.
It just shouldn’t be so hard to find where the game is. THANKS again SactoShark:-)

Snow Shovel

Beer League – Lots of laughs! You’ve been in rare form today. I hope nobody messes with you.

My Dish (here in the Central Valley) is showing the game right where in should be.

SactoShark

Snow Shovel,

They just changed in the last hour…

Note the brain children at ComCrap have not yet got tomorrows game on there…in case like you had to work and wanted to record it as you drove back from the bay area

I could fix this problem..turns out the NBA and NHL both have schedules

Beer League–my cat likes hockey. He is fascinated by the names of the French-Canadian players, and has changed his name from Joe to Joeaux. Sounds the same, though.

smkndowntown

Brent burns does a lot of stuff on accident, hes a good player, but i dont think hes very smart haha

smkndowntown

TOMMY WINGELS ALL DAY BABY

MLBSF

Well I won’t harp on Thornton because others here have recognized his ridiculousness. I actually don’t think he believes the schedule is as significant as he says, but because he seems like such a sarcastic dick in real life, he feels like he can just blow off reporters because he isn’t obligated.

Oh looks like I ended up harping on Thornton. Oh well. He is starting to annoy me way more than Marleau to be honest.

Also, I was watching the Canada-Russia WJC game last night (which turned out to be wildly entertaining), and I was thinking some of the Sharks could take some notes on the fantastic energy level and fast pace.

MLBSF

What an atrocious start. Seriously.

Topcat

CLEAR the zone Marleau…and, why do we insist on dumping the puck in when WE are on the power play? What a waste…

Beer League Rocks

It had been such a nice day in here all day, speaking of sarcastic dicks….

MLBSF

But am I wrong Beer League?

No I am not.

Root

@6 Brent Burns first shot is exactly what you are talking about. It makes all goalies look good. Hard one timer to the chest protector.

Luiz Bonfa

Our PP is just pathetic so far. It looks like they simply don’t know what to do with the puck and without the puck.

berge7f9

Even though their PK has been better recently, it occurs to me that a big reason why their PK has been so poor over the last couple of years has been Niemi’s goaltending style of taking away the bottom part of the net and the five hole with his pads. The Sharks killers have to stay closer to Niemi to keep opposing players from gobbling his pad save rebounds and cannot pressure the opposing PP quarterback at the point.

If you look at Hiller, he makes more of his saves with his body and lets the puck fall right in front of him and covers it up, therefore the rest of the penalty killers can attack the PP puck carrier

MLBSF

Maybe the Sharks should interview every other team in hockey to find out some tips on why they don’t have any trouble beating Anaheim.

I’ve never seen anything like this on how good they make Hiller and he Ducks look.

smkndowntown

Lol! thornton has been layin an egg lately, but he is taking some more risks. As long as we come away with the win i think its all good for now. I always thought thornton needed to take the game into his own hands more instead of handing the puck and relying on his teammate to snipe it past the goal tender. Maybe hell take more smarter risks cuz i liked that breakway when he skated around the defenders to get that chance, granted the van defenseman had a fallen over. He has shown some scoring prowess so we know he can do it. Cant get mad at thornton for being a bad decsision maker cuz he is trying. The thing that pisses me off about thornton is that he doesnt shoot or hit nearly enough…which doesnt make sense to me because thats mostly what you do in hockey

Root

Yes! The black aces picking up the slack

Root

How quickly can the stars coughnup the lead?

smkndowntown

ATTA BOY MARLEAU! Showing some emotion! gotta love it.

And can i just say that Winchester is a boss! that celebration was dope

smkndowntown

“Patrick Marleau is battling”
Ive never been so happy in my life. And the powerplay looks good with Marleau “battling” in front of the net. Marleau if YOUR READING THIS, Im proud of you

Pucky

What exactly does it take to get “Marleau to battle”?? Wow…just think of the possibilities! How exciting!

Buddy Elf

I like the Sharks battle back after their initial sloppy play.

SanJoseCupCrazy

MLBSF: Speaking of sarcastic dicks….

Buddy Elf

Huge neutral zone play by Marleau, then huge shot by Thornton….

LOL… but of course, Marleau will be slammed for having no goals…

MLBSF

Beautiful. Now that’s what I’m talking bout.

MLBSF

You mean huge shot by Pavelski. Thornton shot it right into Hiller’s chest.

Buddy Elf

What game are you watching? It was a huge shot that Hiller couldn’t corral. But then again, you haven’t play so you wouldn’t know that such a shot was a good thing.